He peeks at her through branches, his eyes framed by broad, dark leaves. He hides behind the slim trunk which does not hide him. The light comes in as yellow lines through branches too high to sleep on. He looks, he hides, he looks. She feels her lips curl, tries to stop. He hides, looks. She smiles again.
He is big, two times her. When did he get big? She has known him from his always, held him often when Other was tired. He is as big as First now. And how did First get big? She does not quite know how to think about it. She was swollen with him, and then the pain. She held him. And now First is big, and stays in other trees and shadows and walks with others in the grasses. First is big now, twice her size--and so is this one who looks. He hides. She feels the happy sound in her throat and tries to stop it but it comes. He looks again.
He is Big Enough.
She giggles again, a burbly girlish sound, though she has not been a girl since before First. She wonders what Other will think.
***
“Roo-roo.”
Dark no moon. She looks down through black leaves. She sees one big bright eye, and the outline of one big hand curled around a branch.
“Roo-roo.” His sound for her. She makes a sound to mean be quiet.
But she blinks, and he has pulled himself up to her. He is close to her. He stands and straddles the darkness. He holds himself up straight with hands on branches above him, and she sees his full outline above her in the dark. She wants to stand now, too, but she is too small to do this without scraping her back awkwardly up the wide trunk behind her, and also she might wobble and fall, so she must stay sitting below him on the broad branch.
“Roo-roo.”
She shushes him again, but he leans over her. He sits strongly on his haunches in front of her. His face is close enough that she can see both his glinting eyes, and then they are so close she can not see them and they touch lips and foreheads, and make a lot of sounds.
(and continued)